According to released documents from the Hillsong trove, senior leaders within Hillsong church had corporate church credit cards that they regularly used to buy luxury goods and high ticket items on the church’s dime, with former Global Senior Pastors Brian Houston having an affinity for multi-thousand-dollar meals and hotels.
These were all paid church tithes and offerings, making new Global Senior Leader Phil Dooley’s recent insistence that “stewardship of church resources is something we take very seriously” all the more laughable.
Per their internal policy, if you had a Hillsong church corporate card, it was “only be used for work/ ministry-related expenses properly incurred in the performance of your duties.”
If it wasn’t clear enough, their policy included a reminder for cardholders to ask themselves:
Am I spending this money with the same care that I would show if I was spending my own money? Am I being mindful to steward the church’s money? Is the expense really needed?
To that end, here are the top 10 meals Brian and Bobbie Houston expensed: (For our previous post Top 10 Most Expensive Hotels they expensed, click here)
1. $1570.08 Spent at Catch Restaurant
2. $1657.79 spent at Nobu Newport Restaurant
3. $1679.20 spent at Nobu Newport Restaurant
4. $2,433.38 Spent at Nobu Newport Restaurant
5. $3160.20 spent on Sails Restaurant
7 & 6. $3591.07 and $2948.08 at the Catalina Restaurant
8. $3607.36 spent at 6 Head Restaurant
9. $9431.80 spent at Catalina Restaurant
10. $10,200 spent at Catalina Restuarant
Bonus. $14,672.50 Spent on Gourmet Gift Baskets
For more on Hillsong, see here:
What is ‘Hillsong Family’, and Why Do Some Churches Pay $100K a Year to Join It? Ft. Judah Smith
A Step-by-Step Account of How The Hillsong Money-Making Scam Works
Hillsong’s Compassion Contract Details Revealed: What $1,000,000 Really Gets You
Hillsong Church Salaries, Royalties, Benefits Revealed. $1.9M, $ 1.7M, $1.5M, $876K, $540K
5 responses to “Countdown: Top 10 Most Expensive Meals Brian and Bobbie Houston Expensed to the Church (Number 4 is $2433.38)”
[…] an Instagram post, Houston, who we recently featured in our Countdown: Top 10 Most Expensive Meals Brian and Bobbie Houston Expensed to the Church (Number 4 is … offered up a personal statement, saying that he only drove a few hundred yards when he was caught, […]
Cracker Barrel ? That’s not even good enough for plebs that occasionally cross his path.
[…] weeks before his resignation, Houston, recently featured in our Countdown: Top 10 Most Expensive Meals Brian and Bobbie Houston Expensed to the Church (Number 4 is … was arrested for driving under the influence, demonstrating it had more a hold on him than he let […]
[…] that Bobbie Houston would frequently blow tens of thousands of dollars in a single day on food, booze, hotels, and designer clothing shopping sprees, all coming from the church’s tithes and offerings, she indeed partied like a […]
[…] to arrest records, following a meal at an expensive restaurant, ( Countdown: Top 10 Most Expensive Meals Brian and Bobbie Houston Expensed to the Church (Number 4 is … police stopped him after noticing he was driving erratically. Given a field sobriety test, he was […]